Impressions

Sometimes, life at the JC can seem like one, massive impressionist painting. The overall picture is stunning, thought provoking, and filled with colors and shapes that allow the observer to think and feel in new and enlightening ways. However, for all its beauty, this experience is so compact, so densely concentrated, that often the colors bleed, and the focus becomes hazy. The rich and delicate strokes of each church, synagogue, mosque, sun-baked tel, and crumbling ruin have started to blend into the canvas of my memory. It’s difficult to realize that countless profound lessons, mosaic carpeted churches, and deeply touching hymns sung in remarkable locations will someday be shelved in the back of my mind.



However, this reality does not make Jerusalem any less amazing. Each small stroke, even if detracts from the clarity of the painting, makes the overall image softer and more beautiful. It is an impression that I will take away from the Holy Land.

 

Sometimes, we all need to step back and look at the impression that is our life. There are so many little strokes that seem so important in the present. We can get down on ourselves if we put off working out for a week, fall asleep while saying our prayers, or say something we probably should’ve kept to ourselves. We can get embarrassed when we slip on the Jerusalem Center stairs –again- or slop orange juice down our shirts in front of everyone because we’ve gotten no sleep due to procrastinated New Testament homework. The highs and lows may be forgotten, but the impression of our thoughts, words, and deeds will remain. It is the little things, faithfully given and carried out over time, that create an impression. Each time we stop to serve a needy individual, every instance we decide to attend church, each time we decide to plead to heaven in our difficulties, we add a stroke to the painting that is our life.



We are imperfect. Our hand that holds the brush is shaky and unskilled, but God has the ability to make the haze of our imprecise strokes a masterpiece.

 

That is the beauty of life. The good, the bad, and the ugly all fade into the overall impression of our earthly probation. What impression are you presenting to the world? What impression are you presenting to yourself?

 

I won’t remember everything I have done or felt in Jerusalem, but the subtle warmth and holiness of this place will remain with me.

 

Remember that everyday something will go wrong. The baby will spill the cheerios, the test score won’t be what you hoped, or the battery in your field trip head set will unexpectedly and very inconveniently die. Remember that the unanticipated, off-color strokes are not enough to change an entire impression. Forgive yourself every day. Forgive others every day. Laugh more. Share a joke with God and know that your life impression is in development, that even darker and hazier layers add depth and contrast to your overall painting.



Next time I slip on the JC stairs-and there WILL be a next time- I’m going to laugh. Next time I feel I shouldn’t have made an error, that I wish something hadn’t gone wrong in the day, I’m going to forgive myself and happily decide to be a little more careful in the future.

 

Join me?



I’m going to relish every moment of this experience, not because I will recall every detail with perfect clarity, but because my Jerusalem impression is going to be HUGE and absolutely exquisite. It’s going to be hung on one of the most prominent and well-lit spaces in my heart and memory where I can cherish it always.

 

Thanks for all the strokes you have left in my life; I love you for it!